Conference Announcement: Leverage Points 2019

We are happy to announce our conference Leverage Points 2019! In the spirit of Meadows’ work and building on Dave Abson’s recent paper, we look forward to discussing leverage points for sustainability transformation with you!

Humanity sits at a crossroad between tragedy and transformation, with seemingly little idea of where we wish to go, or how we intend to get there. Similarly, now is a crucial time for sustainability research. Is it to be a passive chronicler of the challenges of our times? Or an active facilitator of transformative change towards sustainability?

Inspired by Meadows’ work we seek to explore (in theory, methods and praxis) the deep leverage points that can lead to sustainability transformations. This conference will ask: how do we transform ourselves, our science, our institutions, our interventions and our societies for a better future? The conference is premised on three principles:

The importance of searching for places where interventions can lead to transformative change.

Open inquiry, exchange and co-learning across multiple theoretical, methodological and empirical research approaches focused on sustainability science and transformative change.

The need for reflection on modes of research and processes in sustainability research.

We hope that this conference will help us move from incremental to transformational change; extend our thinking about complex sustainability challenges and deepen our collective and transdisciplinary research practices. We very much look forward to seeing you in Lüneburg in February 2019.